The Notebooks of Memory
Encyclopedia
The Notebooks of Memory is the third documentary film
in a trilogy by Anne Aghion
examining the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide
.
's third film in her Rwanda
series concentrates on the local citizen-judges' tribunals, where they must weigh survivor accounts of the genocide
massacres against the perpetrators' testimony.
On a lush Rwandan hillside, more than ten years after the 1994 genocide directed at wiping out the Tutsi
population, a tiny rural community repeatedly meet on the grass for the Gacaca court
trials, a judicial experiment aimed at bringing unity back to the country. Award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion
spent four years chronicling the trials, where perpetrators would barter confessions for shorter jail sentences.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
in a trilogy by Anne Aghion
Anne Aghion
Anne Aghion is a French-American documentary filmmaker and Guggenheim fellow.In 2005, she won an Emmy Award for her documentary In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies.-Filmmaking career:...
examining the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
.
Plot
Anne AghionAnne Aghion
Anne Aghion is a French-American documentary filmmaker and Guggenheim fellow.In 2005, she won an Emmy Award for her documentary In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies.-Filmmaking career:...
's third film in her Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
series concentrates on the local citizen-judges' tribunals, where they must weigh survivor accounts of the genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
massacres against the perpetrators' testimony.
On a lush Rwandan hillside, more than ten years after the 1994 genocide directed at wiping out the Tutsi
Tutsi
The Tutsi , or Abatutsi, are an ethnic group in Central Africa. Historically they were often referred to as the Watussi or Watusi. They are the second largest caste in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa ....
population, a tiny rural community repeatedly meet on the grass for the Gacaca court
Gacaca court
The Gacaca court is part of a system of community justice inspired by tradition and established in 2001 in Rwanda, in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, when between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, were slaughtered...
trials, a judicial experiment aimed at bringing unity back to the country. Award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion
Anne Aghion
Anne Aghion is a French-American documentary filmmaker and Guggenheim fellow.In 2005, she won an Emmy Award for her documentary In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies.-Filmmaking career:...
spent four years chronicling the trials, where perpetrators would barter confessions for shorter jail sentences.